Secrets When We're Sober
by ladyoftheLights
Summary: "Rose Weasley," she hisses, her brown eyes a light with mania. I actually fear for my life. I gulp. "Yeah?" "What happened that night!"


"Rosie!"

I turn around with a winning smile on my face. "Yes, Daddy?" I reply sweetly.

"No boys!" He says firmly with an 'I mean it' face. Mum simply shakes her head wearily behind his back.

I laugh and step from Platform 9 ¾ onto the Hogwarts Express. "Got it, Daddy!" I reply, sticking my head out of the window to wave goodbye.

The train doors shut and Lily and I roll our eyes at each other.

"'No boys'," Lily mimics after evidently having the same short conversation with her father. "Yeah right."

"Men are so clueless," I agree. We throw our selves down in the squashy seats of the Hogwarts Express and mentally prepare ourselves for the up-and-coming fun times of sixth year. I reach into my denim shorts and enclose my fingers around my red and gold 'Prefect' badge, just to check that my pesky male cousins haven't stolen off with it _again_. You'd have thought that such primal behaviour would entertain them for a week or so; but it's my second year of being Gryffindor prefect, and James, Albus, Hugo and Fred still find utter joy in playing 'Watch Rosie Go Ballistic'.

"As if I'm going to turn down a boy because _my daddy said so_," Lily says in annoyance.

"Yeah, fat chance of that, Lil," I snort. She glares at me.

"You had like six dates last year!" I prove.

Lily opens her mouth to argue back but we're cut off by the presence of Albus and Scorpius wandering in with Liquorice Wands hanging rather unattractively out of their mouths.

"Who had six dates last year?" Scorpius asks, pulling the sweet from between his teeth. "Because it certainly wasn't you, Weasley." His slate grey eyes bore into me and I can feel the famous Weasley temper bubbling in my chest.

"I have standards, Malfoy," I reply coldly.

"Lily, _you_ didn't have six dates last year did you?" Albus says seriously, looking at his sister with his dark eyebrows raised in big brotherly firmness.

Lily doesn't break a sweat or blush even _slightly_.  
"Of course not, Al," she says with such sincerity I almost believe her myself. She catches me grinning and flickers a warning at me with her intense brown eyes that scream; '_say a word, Rose Weasley, and I will hex you into oblivion_.' I keep my mouth firmly shut.

"Scorpius, stop staring at me," I order, suddenly self conscious that Scorpius has been watching me carefully with a look on his face that I can't place.

Al and Lily both stare at Scorpius who flushes furiously and stands up suddenly.

"See you later, Al," he says quickly and walks out.

"What the hell was that all about?" Lily demands.

"He had better not be hitting on you, Rose," Albus says.

"Oh for goodness sake, you're beginning to sound like my dad," I say in exasperation. Albus gets to his feet to follows Scorpius out of the carriage leaving Lily and I alone.

"You know you could blame this on Uncle Ron," Lily says suddenly.

"Hm? How?" I ask, puzzled at how Scorpius hitting on me is somehow now my father's fault.

"He told you not half an hour ago not to get involved with boys. It's like tempting fate," Lily says thoughtfully. "What do you think of Lysander Scamander?"

"Who?" I say. With Lily the conversation tends to move on quickly.

"Lysander Scamander," she repeats and when I still haven't caught on she huffs in frustration. "The Ravenclaw beater with the twin brother!"

"Oh!" I say. "Yeah he's cute,"

"Good," she says, pleased.

"Lily. Leave the poor boy alone. He'll need therapy for years when you've finished with him," I say.

My cousin grins wickedly. "I know," she says proudly.

The train surges effortlessly through the English countryside and streams through the all too familiar Scottish Highlands on the way back to Hogwarts. Throughout the trip, Lily has talked of nothing but boys. And for me – the daughter of the clueless Ronald Weasley – boys aren't such a gripping topic for me.

"And then I told him, 'don't worry, things like this happen to me all the time,' whilst trying to stop him from eating a Puking Pastille lurking in my bedroom!" Lily finishes extravagantly.

"So … he was a squib?" I ask stupidly having not listened to most of that recount.

Lily rolls her eyes. "_No_, this was the muggle I picked up at a club!"

"Lily Potter, what were you doing at a club without me to supervise you?" I snap quickly, my attention jumping back to action.

Lily rolls her eyes again. "You _were_ there, Rosie." She says in a 'duh' tone of voice.

I frown. "Then how did I let you take him home with you?" I ask.

"Because that was the night that _Scorpius Malfoy_ was there," Lily says suggestively, wiggling her eyebrows. "And you were getting rather cosy with him, might I add."

Oh God. Lily is so annoying when she knows everything.

"Lily Luna Potter," I say hurriedly. "I was _not_ getting cosy with Scorpius."

Lily opens her mouth to retort in glee when the dynamic duo consisting of Albus and Scorpius himself are back with more snacks. "LIL!" I scream suddenly and launch myself from my seat to sit on her and clamp my hands over her mouth.

"Rose," Albus is eyeing me carefully. "Is everything OK?"

Lily is shaking with laughter beneath me. Suddenly her tongue strikes across the palm of my hand and I recoil in disgust. "EUCH!"

"Weasley, stop prancing around before you take someone's eye out," Scorpius says dryly.

"I'll take your eye out in a minute, Malfoy," I mutter, wiping Lily's saliva on her shoulder. She grins at me. I flash my eyes warningly at her. _Lily Potter_. I think desperately, hoping that as cousins, our brains are somehow hardwired to reach each other's minds in desperate situations. _You had better resolve this_.

To my amazement and sudden belief in God, Lily pipes up with; "I think I took a potion you left lying around at home, Al. It's making me voice rather odd thoughts and Rose here just stopped me announcing my undying love for Scorpius when you walked in."

Al and Scorpius both regard her, trying to work out whether or not she's having them on. "You what?" Albus says with a frown.

"Oh yes," she says seriously, gazing at a rather bewildered Scorpius with steady eyes which have just the right amount of affection. "I find you rather exciting Scorpius. And more than anything I'd like to -"

"Well," I say loudly. "That's enough from Lily."

"I don't know why I allow you two to be alone together; Lily, leave Scorpius alone and stop tormenting him," Albus says. For the boy who seems to take delight in charming every girl in Hogwarts and then crushing them all in turn, this seems a bit rich coming from him.

"Good news, Weasley," Scorpius has regained his monotonous, dry composure and now turns to me with one platinum eyebrow partially raised.

"Thrill me, Malfoy," I reply flatly.

"You and I are on rounds together until Christmas,"

I nearly fall off my seat. "Oh wonderful," I force through my gritted teeth. "What else would I rather spend my evenings doing than roaming the castle with you all night?"

"Funny you should say that," Scorpius narrows his eyes. "Because I was wondering to myself; 'if I get put with anyone for rounds, I hope it's someone with all the charm of a _Venomous Tentacula_."

I feel my face heat up in anger and my temper is about to burst. I open my mouth to retort when Albus sees fit to break Scorpius and I apart; we're one more insult away from ripping each other's throats out. Or drawn wands, at least.

"Scorpius, I think there are some Liquorice Wands left over," Albus gabbles quickly, grabbing his best friend by the arm and hauling him out of our compartment.

"'_Thrill me, Malfoy_'!?" Lily shrieks and explodes with laughter as soon as the compartment door has closed with a soft click.

I frown. "What the hell are you smoking?" I say.

"You asked Scorpius Malfoy to _thrill you_!"

"Grow up, Lily, not like _that_!"

"So what did happen that night?" Lily asks me and those intense eyes of hers bore into me. It makes me feel uncomfortable; Lily can read me like a freaking book.

"Uh…" I falter and start blushing furiously. "It was nothing really!" I begin playing rather manically with my hair.

"Rose Weasley." Lily says dangerously, switching from hyperactive puppy mode, to sounding scarily like Auntie Ginny in a split second – it's clear who her mother is.

"This is your entire fault, Lily," I hiss.

"My fault!?" She yelps. "How in the name of Merlin's underpants is this _my_ fault?"

"You're the one who spiked my pumpkin juice with bloody Firewhiskey," I say angrily, I fold my arms across my chest and push out my chin in defiance.

"Only a few times to loosen you up and stop you from noticing what kind of boys I was with –"

"Lil!" I say indignantly.

"But as it turns out, Miss 'I-have-no-interest-in-dating-this-year' Weasley, you might have a lot on your plate with Mr Malfoy,"

"Don't be ridiculous," I say primly, sitting back in my seat and opening a Chocolate Frog. I pull out the Wizard card, secretly hoping it to be my mum, dad, or one of my aunts and uncles who fought in the war. "Oh this is taking the piss!" I complain loudly as I see that my Wizard card is Draco Malfoy.

I give the card with the moving image of a surly looking, yet haunted, Draco Malfoy to Lily. She tries to decline. "Nah – I've got six of him. I'm trying to get another one of your mum so I can complete my masterpiece." I force it into her hand anyway.

Lily's so called 'masterpiece' happens to be a family tree of the adults in our family made out of Chocolate Frog Wizard cards. To be fair, it's very impressive; when you walk into Lily's bedroom, the whole of the north wall is covered. But Lily isn't stupid – she's got a curtain to cover it when she has boys over.

I shake back the sleeve of my knitted Weasley jumper and check my little gold watch which resides on my left wrist and was a 16th Birthday gift from Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny.

"Time to change, Lily," I announce to my cousin who is rather absorbed in the newest edition of The Quibbler. I get to my feet and reach up to the luggage shelf for my trunk. I curse. I'm not tall enough to get it down as it was Albus who put it up there for me.

"Need some help, Weasley?" Comes a voice from behind me. My insides boil at the familiarity.

"As if I would come to you for help, Malfoy," I retort over my shoulder.

"Stop being so bloody stubborn," he mutters and strides into the compartment. With one fluid action, Scorpius lifts down my battered trunk and sets it by my feet as easily as if he was moving a bag of flour.

I cross my arms. "Thank you." I say begrudgingly.

"Did that just kill you inside?" Scorpius smirks.

I narrow my eyes at him. "Don't push it." I say. "Now go away so we can get changed."

Pushing Scorpius out of the compartment, I close the door behind him, accidentally catching his heel in the process, and lean my back against the door.

"Um," Lily says awkwardly from her seat with wide eyes. "That was weird."

"What the hell do you mean?" I snap.

"The sexual tension was unbearable; I kind of felt like I was intruding on something." Lily says and tries to suppress a laugh.

"Before I throttle you," I begin sweetly. "Will you please stop insinuating that anything more than kissing went on between Scorpius and I that night?" I ignore Lily's jaw hitting the floor and I gather up my uniform and make to leave the compartment to change elsewhere.

"ROSIE!" Lily yells and tries to stop me leaving. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN-?"

"Later, Lil," I trill and run down the train corridor. I find Roxanne and Dominique halfway through getting changed in a compartment a few down from the one I was sharing with Lily.

"The hell!?" Roxanne says, holding her discarded t-shirt against her chest.

"Sorry," I apologise, dumping my uniform on the seat beside Dominique who is knotting her tie and reapplying her makeup.

"I needed to escape from Lily," I explain and pull off my own t-shirt and shrug on my shirt.

"Ah," Roxanne nods knowingly. "Was she going all hyperactive and hiding stuff again?"

"Worse," I reply, now wriggling out of my shorts, zipping up my school skirt and beginning a battle with 15 denier tights. "She's turned into miss know-it-all,"

"I see how that could be annoying for you, Rosie; that's usually your title," Dom decides to helpfully pipe up. I look round for something to throw at her and find an empty water bottle. It finds its target with a pleasing thud and Dominique shrieks.

"_Mon Dieu_, Rose! You've smudged my mascara!" She wails and licks her finger to begin remedying the situation.

"Sorry, Domi," I say guiltily; I know how Dom gets when it comes to makeup. She's the one who always does mine for me.

As if she can read my mind she states with a sigh; "come here and let me tidy you up." I could argue that I need no such tidying up, but I know she's right.

I sit down beside Dominique and she starts to deftly make me up and she's French braiding my hair when Lily bursts into the compartment.  
"_Rose Weasley_," she hisses, her brown eyes a light with mania.

I actually fear for my life. I gulp. "Yeah?"

"What happened that night?!"

"What night?" Dom and Roxanne frown confusedly at me and Lily. I look guiltily at the faces of my cousins but also my best friends.

I almost relent but I'm not going to. It's too … personal to share. I feel bad for not telling them because they all tell me everything but this is different …

_-Flashback-_

_I hate clubs. I hate loud music and loud people and drinking and ugh – dancing. I'm here to keep an eye on Lily but she's not making it easy for me. I sit on the red booth chairs that run around the edge of the club and demurely sip pumpkin juice to give my hands something to do. _

_It's too dark to read and the crazy lighting is making my eyes ache and my head hurt – not to mention the pounding music. I glance at my watch; I've only been here an hour and Lily will have no intention of coming home until at least 2am. I sigh. _

_I watch Lily flirt with a guy I've never seen before. Muggle clubs are very strange and the music is dreadful. Lily and I snuck in a flask of pumpkin juice and I have a horrible feeling that Lily has a bottle or two or Firewhiskey in an enchanted clutch bag._

"_Well, well, well."_

_Awesome, great; another guy trying to make me dance. _

_I turn round to yell but the noise ends up dying in my throat. _

"_Rose Weasley speechless! Well this is something I thought I'd never witness."_

_This simple jibe is enough to bring me back. "Goddamn it, Malfoy, the hell are you doing here?"_

"_Don't sound too pleased to see me, you're smothering me." Scorpius teases. _

_I narrow my eyes and him and sit back in the booth sulking._

"_What are you doing here?" I grumble. _

_Scorpius sits back with me. "I come here for fun, but you're obviously not having fun, so why are you here?"_

"_I'm supervising Lily," I say and try to gesture in her direction but the distraction has made me loose her. "Aw shit," I mutter._

"_Lily can take care of herself," Scorpius says flippantly. _

_I open my mouth to argue but close it again. I take a swig of pumpkin juice which has tasted slightly off all evening but I'm putting it down to the container. I've nearly downed a litre of this stuff and it's a good job its self refilling. _

_I offer some to Scorpius. He makes a face._

"_Let me buy you a real drink, Weasley." _

"_No thanks." I decline primly, but Scorpius is already at the bar and before I know it he's pushed a tall blue drink in front of me. _

_I take a drink and make a face. Scorpius laughs. "Is our little Rosie not used to alcohol?" He mocks. I narrow my eyes and defiantly drink more to prove some sort of point. _

_Scorpius takes a long drag of his own drink. "So." He starts. "How are we?"_

"_Not yet drunk enough to be flirting with you," I quip. _

"_Ouch."_

_I try to find Lily again and finally spot her being eaten alive by some guy in a corner. I relax a little and absentmindedly drink again, forgetting it's not my pumpkin juice._

_Scorpius picks up the flask curiously and drinks. He frowns._

"_Rose, you do know this has Firewhiskey in it, don't you?"_

"_No!?" I'm going to actually kill Lily._

_Scorpius gives a low laugh. And leans into me slightly. I like the warmth of his strong arms against mine. _

"_You looked lonely over here so I came over to offer you company." Scorpius tells me suddenly. "And I didn't like how so many guys kept coming over to you."_

"_Why?"_

_He shrugs. "I guess I was worried one of them might get to … insistent."_

_I shudder. But then what he's said actually sinks in with me. "Thank you." I say without any hint of sarcasm. "But why do you care that much? You don't actually like me, remember?" _

_Scorpius smiles and shakes his head slightly. "That's not true, Rose."_

_I like the way he says my name; softly and lightly. Maybe I have had too much to drink._

"_Albus would kill me if I ever made any move on you." Scorpius adds casually and I hope the crazy lighting is making it so he can't see that I am blushing madly. _

"_What?" I say stupidly._

"_Because I would if I thought I had the chance." I'm suddenly aware of quite how close to me Scorpius is and I don't make any move to change it. _

"_Don't be daft." I mutter uncertainly. _

_Scorpius' eyes are unwavering and honest. "I'm serious, Rose."_

"_You've had too much to drink."_

"_No, I haven't." _

_He leans in and kisses me and I'm stunned but something kicks me and I kiss him back. I can taste him as our tongues tentatively entwine and I feel his warm hands on the cool skin of my waist. My heart sort of stutters and my brain totally shuts down._

_I am kissing Scorpius Malfoy in a club. _

_I am turning into Lily._

_But Scorpius is gentle and passionate at the same time and I believe his words and I want them to happen. But I don't know how it could ever work – me and him._

_Oh shut up, Rose, and enjoy the bloody kiss, I order myself firmly. _

_I wrap my arms around his neck knowing later we will both use the excuse of alcohol and bad lighting. He kisses so well and I don't want to stop. Scorpius' lips are soft and move perfectly in time with mine. _

_He pulls away looking at me to check I'm alright – without saying a word I pull him back onto me and we stay entwined in each other's arms and rhythms for a while longer until I'm the one to pull away._

"_Scorpius, I need to find Lily," I say suddenly. "She really can't take care of herself and she's my responsibility…"_

_Scorpius takes my hand. "I'll help you. Just this night, Rose Weasley, you and I can do everything we can't do otherwise."_

"_Everything?" I say flirtatiously. _

"_Now, now," Scorpius breathes back with a smile which I can't help kissing._

"_Forget Lily." I mutter. "Just be nice to me tonight."  
"What I wouldn't give to be nice to you all the time." He replies kissing me three times – lips, nose and forehead._

"_When we're sober, we won't talk about this – I won't be able to. Please promise me you won't use this to torture me." Scorpius murmurs resting his forehead on mine. I close my eyes at his touch. His fingertips trace the features on my face: down my nose, brushing my lips, tracing my jaw line …_

"_No." I breathe. "God, I wouldn't."_

_-End of Flashback-_

"Earth to Rose Weasley?" My cousins are all staring at me like I've finally cracked.

"Sorry." I shake my head to clear it and smile at them. "Totally distracted."

"I bet she was thinking about Scorpius Malfoy," Lily teases and nudges me in the ribs.

"Nice try, Lil," I say.

"Hey, girls."

Scorpius and Albus stroll in again.

"I see you haven't managed to grow a few more inches to hit me yet, Weasley." Scorpius says with a raised eyebrow.

"I see you haven't managed to get a girlfriend yet, Malfoy." I retort.

"Cut it out, you two." Albus says wearily as if Scorpius and I are his bickering children.

"Shut up, Potter." Scorpius and I say in unison.

But when we catch each other's eye when no one else is looking, our expressions say it all: _just wait for the nightly prefect rounds_.


End file.
